My best friend threw her little girl’s 2nd birthday party recently, and decided to go with a Finding Nemo theme. Honestly, it couldn’t be more of a perfect fit. Mama has always been fascinated with ocean life and fishies in general, and her little girl is a water baby as well…and they both absolutely LOVE Finding Nemo. No seriously, I think Mama has seen that movie a minimum of 100 times. I remember when it came out, and she dragged me to the theater because she couldn’t stop talking about it, and even did the impression of Dory doing the whale talk. I remember staring at her with an amused smile on my face. Then, she kinda blushed afterwards and said, “Well, you have to see it!” Apparently, but it was so worth that little showcase right there.
Let’s get started with the games and decorations that she made. When my daughter and I pulled up early in the driveway, my little pumpkin got so excited when she saw all of the games set up, and I was already baffled at what she had put together.
This sign was so cute. I asked her where she got the idea for this, and she told me it was from her creative brain (that goes nonstop, I might add). She had finger painting set up with washable paints, big sheets of white paper, all sitting on top of a bed sheet in the driveway for the kids to paint. She called this Anemone (sponge) Painting since that’s where Nemo and his dad lived.
Here’s my little pumpkin. She enjoyed herself doing this. A lot. Good thing this stuff was washable. The birthday girl walked up to her and slapped some orange paint right on top of her head, but she didn’t seem to notice and just kept on painting.
Here’s the sign for the “Tank Gang” and she had an inflatable pool set up for the kids to play in. She decided to use this because technically the kids were swimming in a tank. Too funny.
BUBBLES!!! Bubble Station! Nuff said.
I saw this sitting on the ground, squatted down to get a better look, and literally laughed out loud. Loved it.
Something else that made me laugh. She made this out of poster board and laminate. What a perfect addition.
Next to this was the East Australian Current. She used blue tulle that she bought at Wal Mart, then googled images of Finding Nemo turtles, printed them out and stuck them up there with it.
For some reason when I walked in the door with the cake and cupcakes, I didn’t notice the ceiling. Later, when I was sitting in the living room, I looked over and saw the ceiling. How in the world did you miss that?! I asked myself…got up, grabbed the camera and snapped some pictures. The blue tulle is on top, and the jelly fish are made out of shimmer material, stuffing, and yarn, all of which she found at Wal Mart. She’s killin’ me here. I loved it.
And, we’re moving on to food and beverages. When she pulled me aside to show me this, I laughed out loud again.
She bought these wafers at the Dollar Tree. So cute, and love the colors. For the food labels, she found the pictures off the internet on Google, printed 4 labels to a page with the wording next to each picture, describing the food.
Sandwiches! I really love the way she named everything here.
Chicken Sticks!
Goldfish!
This watermelon shark was my favorite. I’ve seen this online before, and was so excited when I saw her grandparents putting this together for the party. They ended up sticking toothpicks in the “gums” and used pineapple to make the teeth.
Candy Sushi! She asked me to make these for the party, which of course goes perfectly with the ocean life theme.
I also made the cake and cupcakes. She asked for marble flavored cake and cupcakes, with the “Mine!” decorated cake. I used pirouettes along the border of the cake, buttercream icing, the “Mine” label out of fondant, along with the seagull and rocks made out of fondant.
Marble cupcakes with cream cheese icing! The blue icing of course went along with the ocean color, and orange sprinkles for Nemo. She ordered the labels that were handmade…and literally came in the mail 30 minutes before the party. Whew!!
I fussed at her for being such a super mom with this party, and I’m still baffled by everything that she put together. And you know what? She was worried that it wasn’t going to be put together well enough. Silly girl. I told her she was nuts, because everything she put together was amazing. After the party, she tells me that she’s not going to do any more parties at home, because it’s too much work. I laughed, and said, “Yeah, I said that the past two years before this year.” We just had our daughter’s Little Mermaid birthday party just the weekend before this. 🙂
